Joseph Philip Lyford, 74

Was Professor, Politician

December 03, 1992|By MINDY ANTONIO; Courant Staff Writer

Joseph Philip Lyford, an author and journalism professor who was active in Connecticut Democratic politics during the 1940s and 1950s, died Wednesday at a nursing home in Orinda, Calif. He was 74 and lived previously in Westport.

Professor Lyford, a former newspaperman, had been ill for about five years and died of Alzheimer's disease, said Penn Kimball of Washington, D.C., a friend and former Westport resident.

He was professor emeritus at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley.

Professor Lyford came on the Connecticut political scene in 1949 as press secretary to then-Gov. Chester Bowles. He ran for U.S. Congress from the 4th District in 1952 and representative at large in Westport in 1954, and was unsuccessful both times. He was chairman of the Westport Democratic Town Committee from 1950 to 1952.

Born in Chicago, he moved with his family to Westport as a child. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and graduated from Harvard College in 1941. He served five years with Navy forces in the Pacific.

Professor Lyford began teaching at the University of California in 1966, specializing in urban politics. He retired in the early 1980s.

He wrote several books, including "The Airtight Cage," published in 1966, about the deterioration of the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The book earned him the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award in literature.

He also was a reporter for the Boston Post from 1938 to 1941, a correspondent for the International News Service from 1946 to 1947, assistant editor of the New Republic from 1947 to 1948, and European correspondent for the Hartford Times in 1951.

A memorial service will be held Monday at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church, Orinda, Calif. Memorial donations may be made to the Joseph P. Lyford Scholarship Fund, c/o Graduate School of Journalism, 121 North Gate Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 -